So why the fuck were my fingers digging into my beer bottle?
Maybe it was because I didn’t want to see someone so clearly pure and innocent being gobbled up by the king of the pricks, my ring restlessly tapping my beer before bringing it up to my lips. I eased the alcohol down in a thick lump, other images clouding my vision. I’d made the mistake of coming to this girl’s rescue before, something that had ultimately gotten her and her mom kicked out of my house in the first place. I remembered that thing with the dog well, my meddling well, and I brushed my fingers against Melrose’s shoulder. “I know you. Don’t I, Greer?”
Since I did, I might as well acknowledge it, and she appeared relieved that I had. At least, we wouldn’t have to pretend anymore, and she placed a hand on her chest, nodding at me. “Right. It’s been, what?”
“Ten years.” And I knew them well, my smile small. “How’s your mom doing?”
That’s when her smile fell and shifted to something else, what? Annoyance? Disdain? Honest to God, the line traveled so thin, but I couldn’t make it out. I just knew thoughts of our history were definitely playing across her mind, and whatever they entailed wasn’t making her happy. “She’s fine. Works on campus actually. That’s why we moved back here.”
And so my blast from the past had returned, her mom no doubt getting her a free education. No way could she afford the private tuition of Pembroke University, this school full of nothing but blood the pure color of blue. I was amongst that elite due to my familial ties, as most of the guys in this frat were.
The majority of us had been funneled over from my small town more than two hours away. Maywood Heights was a city of nothing but sin and the darkest elite, a brotherhood known as the Court the main reason why. Basically a boys’ club, it bred our fathers and grandfathers into some of the most powerful men in this country, not just our small town, and was the reason why myself and many others in this room wore the very rings on our fingers. It had a gorilla pressed into the chrome finish, and though there may be miles between us and Maywood Heights, that didn’t mean the values stayed behind. I liked to think I rose above some of the riffraff that came out of there, but even I wasn’t innocent. I had a past just like everyone else, and this girl before me had seen some of it.
I nodded at Greer, what she said, and when Bryce exchanged a glance between us, I smirked at him. “Greer’s mom used to work for me.”
“His grandfather,” she cut in, a little fire cat to that innocent image she portrayed. It turned me on more than I’d readily admit, her smile wide on me. “He’s actually the reason she got fired.”
“Fucking yeah?” Bryce balked, then slapped his hand against my chest. “What did you do?”
“Nothing worth noting now.” I shifted my attention to Greer. “It’s been a long time.”
It had been a long time, and though I’d been a snot-nosed little kid last time I’d known her, the reaction she elicited out of me now I couldn’t so easily lock down in the past and pass off as a little brat kid with an infatuation with the first girl his grandfather threw in front of him. Greer Michaelson unnerved me, was under my skin, and I felt that each time my slime ball frat brother rubbed her shoulders and pressed his nose into her white blond hair. She wasn’t in his league—at all—and that was because she was better than him. Better than all this.
“How do you two know each other?” I fought heat in my voice staring at them, trying to distract myself with Melrose and her perfect tits as she pressed her pebbled nipples up against me. They strained at her top and everything, the girl hungry for me as she lazily drew fingers across my abs through my T-shirt.
Greer noticed when I glanced over to her, frowning, and though she opened her mouth to speak the douche prick wouldn’t let her.
“Just met at a club tonight,” he crooned, the girl basically fresh meat under his arm. He jiggled her, the ass hat basically trying to fondle her when he moved his hand around and brushed his fingers against her side boob. Greer immediately tried to ease away, clearly uncomfortable, but he kept her there.
My hand squeezed glass, and complacent, she let him hold her. He was in a position of power, and she allowed it, probably not wanting to be rude. With a tap against his arm, she did eventually push away though.
“I’m going to get a drink.” A breath pulled from her lips, clear relief from no longer being fucking fondled. But with a move, Bryce got back right into that.
He brought her to him by the hips, then pinched her chin. “Get me a beer?”
She nodded, again I think to keep the peace. She passed me barely a look, and before I knew it, I was telling Melrose to follow after her.
“Get yourself something,” I told her, wanting to talk to this cocksucker alone. If he was going to be talking to Greer, he wouldn’t be fucking with her. I raised my bottle. “And me one too.”
Melrose more than wanted to oblige like most girls in her position; being in my hometown gave me power. Then coming here, a new elite made up of people from where I was from and similar places around the globe, the same. Pembroke University had its own caste system, and as far as myself or anyone else in this fucking
